I was young with already strong motorcycles and women fantasies. On December 31, 1967 Brigitte Bardot appears on the TV screen riding a chopper and singing (in french) a Harley-Davidson song written by one of my favorite artists named Serge Gainsbourg. I am panting from of the screen and millions with me hear a provocative dressed (for the time) Bardot singing these words (I translate) "vibrations of my machine make me feel desires between my…:". Well, I just re-discovered the video of this crucial time of my life, and it makes me feel….young again. A true "retro sexo video". Enjoy! . .

It’s far from being one of the best songs of Serge Gainsbourg, but it’s great to see the video clip of it again (they called these clips “scopitones” back then in France). The bike was built by Maurice Combalbert who was a mechanic in a shop located in Paris, selling cars, motorcycles and furniture ! The P.A.M.A. as it was called, mainly sold british bikes, but Maurice – who is a very old man now – was always tinkering around with Harleys. Handmade ape hangers with an eagle in the middle, or with iron initials of the owner, as well as huge exhaust pipes (up to 3 on each side) were his typical trademark. The black WLA he built for this song is certainly the most important bike in France’s Harley history. All old timers know exactly that this Flathead was stolen after they finished shooting the clip, then it was dismantled and the frame and other parts were thrown in the Canal de l’Ourq in Paris. Perhaps it’s still there, if some Brigitte Bardot fan wants to build a replica ! Thanks Cyril for this great blog !

The December 31, 1967 airdate was in her native France; in the U.S., it aired on NBC on December 3, 1968 at 10 P.M. (EST) immediately after Elvis Presley’s widely-promoted, critically-acclaimed and very highly-rated “comeback” special. “Special Bardot” was sponsored in the U.S. by Burlington Industries, which called her show “The Unabridged Brigitte Bardot” in their advertising. Alas, not quite; NBC did quite a few bits of editing, including snipping off about 15 seconds from the open in which she displayed nude breasts. “Special Bardot” did not get the same super-high ratings that “Singer Presents Elvis” did (then again, anyone going on after Elvis would have had the proverbial “tough act to follow” tag), but she still won her time slot; but then, it wasn’t hard, given one of her competition – a “CBS News Special” in which Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black – giving his only television interview ever – discussed his views on the Bill of Rights and his take on the increasingly prevailing view among jurists that the Constitution was a “living document” to be bent, folded, spindled and mutilated according to the whims, fads and fashions of the moment, with correspondents Eric Sevareid and Martin Agronsky. As Justice Black later recounted, a New York Times reporter had informed him that a whopping 75% of the audience watching at the 10-11 P.M. (EST) hour saw Bardot cavorting in and around London, Paris and Saint-Tropez – and a paltry, scant 7% saw his talk on the Constitution.

My question is, would American viewers have seen this “Harley Davidson” number on that night in 1968, or was it too cut, for whatever reason (at Burlington’s behest, perhaps?)